Amiga 4GB CF A600 Help

[Cammy]

You don't need to do a Low-Level Format, a Quick Format should be fine. Once you have made those partitions (best to call the devices HD0 and HD1 or DH0 and DH1) save the changes to the drive and reboot. The drives should show up on the Workbench desktop but still need to be formatted. Simply click on the icon once, select Format Disk... from the Icons menu, name them "Workbench" and "Games" and click on Quick Format. You don't really need a Trashcan, but if you want I guess you could have one in the Workbench drive.

[Cammy]

Do you have the software installed to use the PCMCIA card reader? If not, you will need to download this software and transfer it to your Amiga either by putting the CF card back in the PC or by using a 720kb PC formatted floppy disk.

First you'll need LHA, the most popular archive format on the Amiga.

http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/lha

This is a self-extracting archive, it will give you a few different versions of LHA. Since you're using an A600, you'll need to rename the 68k version to just "LHA" and copy it to your C drawer in the Workbench boot partition. But that's just the first step, then you need to get the latest version of LHA and extract that with the version you just installed! Get it here:

http://aminet.net/package/util/arc/lha_68k

Double click on this file once it's on your Amiga, and it should open an "Execute Command" prompt with "lha_68k" in it. You need to change it so it says "lha x lha_68k Games:" and it should extract it to your Games: partition, then you just do the same, rename the 68k version to just "LHA" and drop it in the C drawer, overwriting the original. Then you can delete all those temporary files.

If you can't ever see files, you might need to select "Show - All Files" from the Window menu.

For your PCMCIA adapter, you need these files:

http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/cfd
http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/fat95
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardReset
http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CardPatch

Each one should include documentation on how to install.

Now you can extract WHDLoad, which you can download from here:

http://whdload.de

There is an installer included, so you can just run that. If you don't have the Installer tool installed, you will have to get it off of the Workbench Install disk, from the C drawer, and copy it into your Workbench partition's C drawer.

Documentation for WHDLoad is on the website, including brief installation instructions:

http://whdload.de/docs/en/install.html

[Cammy]

I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner with instructions on installing that stuff, I guess if it's easier for you to use WinUAE it's probably best to set everything up with the internal CF card on that first, then move the card to the real Amiga. This includes installing the drivers, then you won't need to transfer them over on a floppy disk or something. Once the drivers for the PCMCIA card reader and FAT filesystem are installed on the internal CF card, as well as the card patches, you should be able to read cards in the PCMCIA card reader as well. These only need to be formatted in the standard PC FAT16/32 format and don't need to be prepared as special Amiga partitions like the internal CF card.

Other expansion options for the A600 include 1MB ChipRAM modules, 1-4MB PCMCIA SRAM cads, and home-made 8MB "A608" cards which latch onto the CPU like a parasite (the same as the ACA630 accelerators). There is also at least one current project to make a very inexpensive 020 accelerator with only 2MB extra RAM, which coupled with a full 2MB of ChipRAM is enough for many games and programs. I have been using a 4MB A600 for a while now, and it's a pretty nice WHDLoad system. I now have an ACA630 in it, so it has 66MB RAM all up, but I have moved my 2MB PCMCIA SRAM card to my other A600, so I've been testing several games and programs on this 3MB A600 and many work too. I was playing Theme Park on it for hours the other day.

But for sure, I think you need to upgrade the A600 just a little bit. As well as RAM, I'd recommend a Kickstart 3.1 ROM or perhaps a ROM Switcher with 1.3 and 3.1 ROMs, for good backwards compatibility with old floppy disk games as well as the latest OS for Workbench. You could also get a Scart cable or a S-Video adapter so you can use a LCD TV with a nice, crisp display.

Also, I think it might help people deciding to help you out if you put your location in your profile. Sometimes if someone lives close enough, they may offer to help out in person or mail you a disk or CF card to help out.

Here are some links to some useful expansions for your A600:

A603 1MB ChipRAM/Real-Time Clock/Clockport - http://www.ggsdata.se/Datorer/a603chipram.php
2MB PCMCIA SRAM - http://cgi.ebay.com/Epson-SRAM-CARD-2M-Seiko-/260748576800?#ht_1129wt_1141
2MB PCMCIA SRAM - http://cgi.ebay.com/Mitsubishi-Melcard-SRAM-PCMCIA-Card-2MB-MF32M1-LCDAT01-/120651002669#ht_923wt_907
Kickstart ROM Switcher - http://amigamaniac.com/ksrs.html
RGB - S-Video Adapter - http://amigamaniac.com/RGB_to_PAL_NTSC_adapter.html
RGB - Scart Cable - http://www.vesalia.de/e_amigamonitorcables[311].htm

And here's a video of the Furia628 020+2MB accelerator:
[YOUTUBE]133_FcrqZDM[/YOUTUBE]